Welcome to Visit Augusta GA blog

It was a recent trip back from visiting my family in Florida when we discovered Augusta in St. Augustine, Florida. We stopped at the Castillo de San Marcos in downtown St. Augustine. The fort was built to protect and defend Spain’s claims in the New World.

Today it is a National Park and a great place for kids to run around and learn hands-on about history. The Castillo still stands today – undefeated after 330 years of colonial warfare and intrigue. The reason could be because of the 16th century technology centered on black powder. I tell you all this because Augusta, Georgia is where they got their black powder or gunpowder during the Civil War.

The fort has plenty of ammunition and weapons on display – cannons, cannonballs and rifles. But in a special case downstairs is a small bag of ammunition stamped “Augusta, Georgia.” It was a great discovery.

The history of the Augusta Confederate Powder Works thanks to the National Parks Service: At the beginning of the Civil War gunpowder supplies for the Confederate armies were insufficient.

In 1861 Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, charged Colonel George Washington Rains with solving this issue by creating a local supply of gunpowder. Rains chose the flat lands by the Augusta Canal as the most suitable site for making the much needed gunpowder. He named Major Charles Shaler Smith as architect to design the Confederate Powder Works. The Confederate Powder Works, the only permanent edifice constructed by the Confederate States of America, was in operation until April 1865. During its lifetime, the facility produced approximately 7,000 pounds of gunpowder per day for a final total of 2,750,000 pounds. The Augusta Powder Works produced enough gunpowder to fully meet the needs of the Confederate armies and still retained a surplus of 70,000 pounds at the end of the war.

It was a perfect fall weekend to explore Aqueduct Park with my girlfriend’s dog Harvey.

Water from the Augusta Canal feeds the park via a cascading waterfall on one side and rock-lined spillway on the other both meeting in a small pool before wandering off a few hundred yards to the Savannah River.

Water levels vary by season and were barely a trickle today. When the water is really flowing, more adventurous people enjoy sliding down the rocks of the spillway that today I could walk across with ease. Another activity people enjoy is rappelling down or climbing up the walls of the old aqueduct. I’ll save that for another day!

Aqueduct Park is a fairly new park who’s success is largely attributable to determined local volunteers who rescued the area from a jungle of vines, shrubs, and trash. If you’d like to go and admire their handiwork, the area is accessible by car via a dirt road at the end of Goodrich Street, or by parking across the Canal near Lake Olmstead and crossing the pedestrian bridge. Google pinpoints it here.

I know it might seem a little weird to kayak in downtown, but along the Augusta Canal it is possible. The journey for me began at the Augusta Canal Headgates where the Canal begins – this is the spot where it branches off from the Savannah River. The canal was originally built by hand in 1845 to harness the water power to operate textile mills. It continues to do that job today more than 100 years later.

For more than seven miles that the canal takes, it leisurely turns. It starts out very quiet and calm with plenty of wildlife and ends with beautiful 100 year-old factories still drawing in water and then right into downtown Augusta – just three blocks from Augusta’s main street.

The canal is all calm water and can be navigated by even the most novice of water travelers – as my friend and co-worker Katrina demonstrated in her canoe. Anna did her best to steer them straight. The entire trip took just under three hours, but that did include stops for snacks. There are many places to put in if you want a shorter trip, but there is also Lake Olmstead to visit if you want to take a longer trip. There is also a path along the canal for cyclists, walkers and fishermen. But today’s journey for me was in a kayak and I loved it!

Today we rented from AWOL. They will drop you off and with a cell phone call, pick you up once you’re done.

I recently got married in my hometown of Augusta, GA. While planning a wedding takes lots of time, and can be stressful-it was worth it in the end!

There are so many places to choose from to get married in Augusta. The city offers many churches, downtown venues, historic sites, hotels, and even an old firehouse. My family hosted my bridal brunch at the beautiful and historic Partridge Inn. This is a Southern hotel that dates back 100 years and is still the splendor of the South!

We decided to have our rehearsal dinner at Enterprise Mill, located downtown on the Augusta Canal. This was the perfect place to enjoy the historic mill, while also enjoying the sites of the canal.

We chose the church I grew up in, The Hill Baptist Church, located in Summerville, for the ceremony site. Last, we decided on The River Room located on the Savannah River in historic St Paul’s Church for our reception site. We wanted to incorporate as many features that Augusta has to offer.

There are also many wonderful vendors to choose from when deciding who to use for your caterer, cake, flowers, band/DJ, photographer/videographer, wedding dress/tux, gifts for your attendants and everything else! Also, here at the Augusta CVB we can help you with reserving hotel rooms for your out of town guests at a discounted rate, and help with locating a venue for any of your wedding events.

So, if you or someone you know is thinking about getting married here in Augusta, the opportunities are endless and I can assure you, you will be happy with any choice here in Augusta. Happy Wedding Planning!!!